IMPORTANT POSTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 135, 5 December 1930, Page 10

IMPORTANT POSTS

DIRECTORS OF EDUCATION

"EXCEPTIONAL MEN. WANTED"

The need for securing the services of the best possible men to guide the destinies of the Education Department is stressed editorially in "National Education," the official journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute. "As has been announced in the daily Press," it is stated, "the post of Assistant-Director of Education is about to be vacated by Mr. Bell, who is retiring on superannuation. The retirement of the Director, Mr. T. B. Strong though not so immediate, is not remote. What' does Mr. Atmore propose to do with regard to the new appointments? "This is a question of very great importance.- The- Government is commited to the urgent task of reorganising the present education system. If the Minister can induce Parliament and the country to proceed along.the lines indicated in the recommendations of the Keccss Committee, reorganisation will be comprehensive, in certain respects almost revolutionary. Mr. Atmore may introduce the necessary legislation; Parliament may place it on the Statute Book, but it will rest with the Department, arid especially with its directors, to translate words into deeds in the manner and spirit necessary to give real effect to the reforms enacted. ' ■ ' ' "Obviously, the new responsibilities involved in the impending reforms demand the services of exceptional men. Are these appointments to be filled from the limited field of selection bounded by the walls of the Education Department? This is not a case of rewarding service, or promoting from the lower rungs of the ladder of seniority. It is a matter of widening the field of selection, so that the most capable men for this special task may be discovered. Whether' they are to be found within the Department may be a matter of opinion. They may not even be in the country. The point to be emphasised is that if the field is thrown wide open the right men for the work are more likely to be found. "There is no question as to the1 right of every individual to aspire to the top of his particular professional ladder. On the grounds of patriotic sentiment it may be conceded at once that, other things being equal, a fellow-citizen should be preferred. Care should be taken, however, that the field of comparison should, be sufficiently extensive to ensure that the standard of efficiency will be well above the average. The "Department in this connection should not be allowed to become a closed preserve. Patriotic sentiment should not blind us to the possibility that the very man for the task of putting important educational reforms into_ effect may be in Canada, or South Africa, or Australia, or in the United Kingdom. _ '' Because a man is a good teacher- it does not necessarily follow, that he would be a successful inspector. By the same token, a good inspector might, be a failure as a departmental administrative oijficer. And in the final analysis, it should by no means follow as a matter of succession that an assistantdirector should be_ entitled to the higher post when that is vaeted. We repeat, emphaciallyj that the field should be thrown open, and if there is any regulation standing in the way of that com-mon-sense method of proceeding, it should be removed."